Need a Little Water?

At the end of last week I was at Walmart and saw some beautiful purple potted flowers for $6.96 each. I don't know what the flowers are called but they are purple and they are pretty.  My front door his yellow...and purple and yellow look great together...so I bought them to go in the same place that my poinsettias were located at Christmas time.  (literally took the poinsettia pots to the trash when I placed my new spring flowers) I set them there for curb appeal and when I left the next day they were beautiful! But you see I don't use my front door very often and I don't always look at my front door as I'm driving by my house to get to my driveway.  So...truthfully...I forgot all about my little $13.92 Spring purchase.

Midway through this week...I did look at my front door as I was passing my house to get my driveway and I noticed that my purple flowers were completely dead. 

My house faces due west - I think! (I'm from Georgia and we don't do many things based on directions!) but I do know this the sun shines through the cracks in my blinds every morning and blinds me awake and beats the majority of the day on my front door!  Since the sun rises in the East and sets in the West...I think I'm right!  So the dead plants sparked my interest and I walk through my house to the front door to see what the deal was and it was exactly as I had seen from the road.  The plants were dead...the one on the left was a little more dead! Can you be more dead? If you're dead...you're all the way dead, right?  But either way...the one on the left looked a little worse for the wear.  How did I handle my sad curb appeal?  I did what any good gardener would do… I gave them some water. And then right away I did what any bad gardener would do...I forgot all about them again! Because as I said...we don't use the front door very often!  

Fast forward a few more days to TODAY!  Again...I was paying attention and actually looked at the front of my house as I was pulling into my driveway and guess what I saw?  Yep!  Dead plants!

I went into good gardener mode...gave the plants some water and was determined NOT TO FORGET about these guys!  I was going to INTENTIONALLY go check on them!  (I set an alarm!)  As I was waiting to check on my purple beauties I began thinking about the plants.  I have LOTS of plants in my front yard and they don't react like my potted, front door plants. So what is the difference?  The area where these plants live get more direct sunlight for longer periods of time everyday, they also are not rooted deep into the soil, and once they are out of water...there isn't any to draw from. These realizations made me think about my 2016 goal is INTENTIONAL LIVING.  Sometimes I am placed in an area where the elements are hard, I feel isolated and alone, and it can fell like life is being sucked out of me!  I'm not rooted deeply in the truth of God's Word so I wilt when things get tough, and there is just nothing to draw from!  

When I feel this way it doesn't always mean that I am in the wrong place, or that I am outside of the will of God (pray and seek Him to make sure that's not the case!) but what it does mean is that I need water!  The Living Water that brings LIFE, the Living Water that only Jesus and His Word can provide.  

There are times when I am just busy and I am in the constant beating down of the elements and I get distracted with much and I miss the cool water that my Jesus and His Word provides!  I have to be INTENTIONAL and drink (get in the WORD) and stay hydrated so that I don't lay down when things get hard but instead that I draw from the water of the Word and stand up, strong, in His truth. (my alarm went off and I went to check on my purple beauties!)

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” ~John 4:13-14

It's amazing what Loganville tap water did for my plants...can you imagine what the Living Water of Jesus will do for you when you are thirsty, dry, and on the verge of death and then you choose to INTENTIONALLY DRINK! Get a big gulp today!